retener
Spanish, verb/reteˈneɾ/
retener is spelled R-E-T-E-N-E-R (7 letters) and appears 5.2 times per million words in written Spanish, the 11,540th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Retener is a Spanish verb meaning “to retain, to remember” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Hacer que alguien no se vaya o siga su camino, en contra de su voluntad”.
What does retener mean in English?
verb
- 1
to retain, to remember
- 2
to withhold, hold, to keep
- 3
to hold back
No tengo muy claro si es lo que realmente quiero, por una parte quiero abrazarte y besarte, pero algo me retiene, no sé qué.
- 4
to catch, to detain
- 5
to sequester
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Hacer que alguien no se vaya o siga su camino, en contra de su voluntad. 2. Evitar que algo fluya, en contra de su curso natural.
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of retener
- retengo first-person present singular
- retuve first-person preterite singular
- retenido participle past
- e-ie alternation
- reteniendo gerund
- retenida feminine participle past
- retenidos masculine participle past
- retenidas feminine participle past
- retienes indicative informal present
- retenés indicative informal present
- retiene indicative present singular
- retenemos first-person indicative plural
- retenéis indicative plural present
- retienen indicative plural present
- retenía first-person imperfect indicative
- retenías imperfect indicative second-person
- reteníamos first-person imperfect indicative
- reteníais imperfect indicative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce retener?
- /reteˈneɾ/
- [re.t̪eˈneɾ]
- [ret̪eˈneɾ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to retener
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is retener in Spanish?
retener appears 5.2 times per million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).